kbar463

Ferg, As a novice I am having trouble noticing what you mean by uneven knife cuts, what are the indicators of that? What I'm really saying is I don't see the error in this picture and I'm certain I wouldn't recognize it in any work I might create, so what is it I am looking for? I also feel I've worded this question oddly and I think I need a beer....

They have a front area for all the sales and a very large back area as the workshop. They have quite a few rows of large shelves all stacked with multiple types of leathers. I have never seen the San Antonio Tandy "back room" (if there is one) but there is way more leather at Ludwigs than there is at the Tandy sales area. I was shown Bison, bought some horse, saw some stingray once, and all manner of garment, lining and tooling leather. I do want to bring up again though that they seem like an actual crafting shop, but they have never batted an eye at me asking to buy raw materials. I am no expert on them, and am sure their stock represents their needs more than what someone might stock for selling the raw materials to customers. I would call if I had doubts about the availability of materials you were looking for.

Ludwigs leather, I just bought some horsehide and clips there today. Great bunch of helpful and super nice folks who work there.

so Springfield or Wickett and Craig require a business number. I have encountered that before and as a total hobbyist, I would rather avoid those establishments

One in New Braunfels that I use. I like to keep it local when I can.

Lets see, its going to be a 46" belt so... maybe if I train my 3 kids and work shifts, then factor in the health care when my oldest gets angry and tries to 'awl' the youngest. Can you dye over a blood stain? Many thanks out to you fella's for the great advice and hints, it is exactly what I needed to avoid some of the trail and error I was dreading. The kids and I are doing pretty well on progressing, only about 60% of our projects look like a soup sandwich.

Well, I am indeed dreading the stitching, but I have a local leather store in town that I am plan on asking a favor, for compensation of course. If not, I know how my evenings will be filled for quite some time. Also, good point about the mag pouches, I think they are plastic, I need to make sure of their max specs.

Hello everyone, I've lurked here for a while but now have a question for the experts that I can't really find an answer to. Before that though, I would like to say that this site, and its contributors, provide an astounding resource and all around enjoyable place to spend time learning about leatherworking. I am a hobbiest and some of the designs and ideas and institutional knowledge are something that has allowed me to have even more fun poking and mashing leather than I thought it would be. On to my question. I have a buddy who is a federal law enforcement officer, and I want to make him a belt because he always has trouble with store bought belts because the gun and holsters weight always end up twisting those cheap belts into uselessness very quickly. So I was thinking that I could make him a nice belt that might stand up to the rigours a bit better. I have little experience with belts other than tooling a few for some family memebers, but I was thinking that I would like to make him a lined belt, with maybe a little geometric tooling on it. I was hoping that by lining the belt and making it like 1and 1/2 or 1 and 3/4 inches wide, it might be a better gun belt than whatever he has been using. I probably should keep the width something that he can wear with business casual/ casual trousers (ie 2" width is probably out). So will lining it with some tooling leather accomplish my goal? If so, what thickness' would be best? 7oz lined with 2/3 oz? or maybe 5oz lined with 5oz? Or maybe there is a solution that I haven't even thought of. Any help would be appreciated. Mark